Franco, presenting himself to world opinion as the defender of the Church, was greatly displeased at criticism levelled against him by some European Catholics who condemned not only the murders of priests in the Republican zone, but also those of workers and peasants in the nationalist zone.
On 10 May 1937, Franco asked Isidro Goma y Tomas to promulgate "a text, addressed to bishops the world over with a request that it be published by the Catholic press everywhere, which would set out truth clearly and in proper perspective" (from a letter, Goma to Eugenio Pacelli, 12 May 1937).
Goma immediately set to work on the propagandistic statement aimed at international Catholic opinion.
Goma gave enthusiastic support to Franco – though he warned against the danger of Nazi influence – "the effect on the State of a foreign ideology which tends to draw us away from Christian ideas and influences, will create enormous problems when grafting a new Spain".
Alvarez Bolado, a writer on the religious factor in the Civil War, highlighted four limitations of the letter ;